Tiergartenrestaurant Waldschänke

Key facts:

main dish from 9,20 €

seats inside: 350

seats outside: 680

1 adjoining room for 120 to 200 persons

next coach parking area: Nuremberg zoo

The ensemble of the Waldschänke and its oak-tree-shaded beer garden in the middle of the forest surrounding Nuremberg is the city's highest(-altitude) restaurant. The main building with its striking wooden pillars and an old-fashioned tile oven, the wooden pavilion (today enclosed as the "Glass Palace") and the half-timbered gable is, like all of the buildings bulit in 1939 at the Nuremberg Zoo, a listed historical structure. Peter Noventa and his wife have continued the original style in the interior, with new Art Deco light fixtures that are a replica of originals from that time and chairs which are (mostly) genuine antique Thonet stools from the era.

The cuisine of the Tiergartenrestaurant Waldschänke is marked by quality and authenticity of the raw materials, spices, its simplicity and the honesty of the recipes. The role models for the couple are the mothers, grandmothers and aunts in Italian trattoria (the name Noventa comes from the Veneto region, the grandfather from Padua) and, above all, their own mothers and grandmothers (from Nuremberg & Allgäu), who were good, old fashioned homemakers who knew how to make the best out of whatever came into the kitchen.

Through their knowledge of and a commitment to permanent improvement of the quality of their products and services, as well as a general economic and self-imposed ethical pressure, the Noventas have chosen to make their restaurant a training center for restaurant specialists (for the last seven years) and for cooks (for the last three). The restaurant has also received the quality seal "Service Quality in Germany". The Tiergartenrestaurant is organically certified since 2011 and MSC certified since 2013. It offers nutritional food for every price range and preference: From self-service to the finest dining. Since 2013, the restaurant is active in the local organic organization and is now a Bioland partner. The Tiergartenrestaurant Waldschänke must be the only zoo restaurant in Germany that is both organic and MSC certified.

On Saturdays, theater is offered with the motto "artgerecht & vogelwild" - "species-appropriate & free as a bird". The culinary theater format allows the Waldschänke and Blaue Salon to present itself once a week as a fine restaurant at a very high level, giving it the opportunity to serve international guests from around the world. It has also meant that the Noventas have made their season-dependent business into a year-round functioning and ambitious restaurant. What is unique about culinary theater is that it takes place between the guests and is therefore very lively and interactive. Don't miss this sparkling cuvee full of humor and spirit, great live music and the finest menus: A "Cucina dell'Arte".

The venerable rooms in which the Waldschänke is located are reconized by the heritage authorities and can be used for various events. The culinary theater can also be booked for private groups - with lateral thinking, sophisticatedly modest, fervently sung - whether in English or "cosmopolitan" in the local dialect.

To keep pace with the times and to meet the new organic standards of the Organic City Nuremberg, the Noventas have restructured their organization - product range, warehousing, production and personnel - over the last six years. Through this process they have created a unique selling pount that is one-of-a-kind within Nuremberg and without.